Breakfast was pretty much the same except instead of egg on toast, I had baked beans. They were freshly made (well I hope) instead of canned, and the rice dish had peanuts in.

When we got to Gwalior, it took us a while to find the hotel Steve had booked us, partyl because the driver didn't know where it was and partly because it took us ages to go straight on at a crossroads, because there was no traffic lights. It was absolute commotion- when there was the tiniest of spaces all the motorcyclists would go in them making it very hard for any of the cars. A few people from the surrounding market tried playing traffic police but I still wouldn't have liked to be whoever the emergency services vehicle was for!

When we eventually found it, the hotel owner said he had not recieved the booking from the agent (Intech Hotel SOlutions, lthough i think Intech Hotel Problems is more apt). There were no hotels with vacancies because there were 20,000 students from Delhi taking their teaching exams in Gwalior. Alice spoke to the agent on the phone and he said that he had seen there was no space but he hadn't thought to let Steve know! We were concerned this morning that it would be the driver not having a place to stay, but in actual fact it was the other way round (there was space in the drivers lobby for Mahesh). We never got a chance to see whether the next hotel that STeve said had a room because the family he is staying with said we could have they're spare room for the night. We chatted to them about Indian and English foods, whilst sampling their Gram (chickpea) flour nibbles and sweets that reminded me of shredded wheat.

STeve said that they were fairly well off, although (without sounding snobby) you wouldn't have been able to tell coming from England. Ok I do sound abit snobby.

We went to a supermarket so that we could buy a present for the family, and I also brought some 'chikki' which is like sesame snaps, just with nuts like cashews, coconut and pistachio.

We got a tuk-tuk to a coffee house with Steve's coworkers Kim and Akilla (Akilla was south Indian). Downstairs they just served snacks, and upstairs they served meals which were brought up from the kitchen below. We had they're usuals Paneer Butter Masala, Chickpeas and a potato one, as well as Veg Koftes served with rice and roti.